Another of Trump’s close advisers on China, Michael Pillsbury, has suggested that the U.S. should demand $10 million for each coronavirus death from the Chinese government. Trump has said that his administration is seriously contemplating claiming very substantial reparations from the Chinese. There is even talk of the U.S. President using his emergency war powers and defaulting on debts to China.

Michael Pillsbury, partly the inspiration for President Trump's more confrontational approach to China, pointed to a book by a Chinese colonel about the "post-American era" and "duel of the century." One analyst claims the Chinese have persuaded Americans they are locked in such a duel — though a national survey by my organization, the Eurasia Group Foundation, finds little such concern among the public.

Writers like Michael Pillsbury, who enjoys access to the President, as well as Libby and others are based at the think tank. Vice President Mike Pence delivered a major hardline China policy speech in late 2018 at Hudson, as did Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in October 2019.

And this is the beginning of the selection of superstars, like Michael Pillsbury [a former government official who President Trump has called an authority on China], Matt Pottinger [now deputy National Security Advisor], and Peter Navarro. And others came into the administration, like General [Robert] Spalding. That all started with those early meetings with General Flynn.

Such sentiments echo Michael Pillsbury’s The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, an influential book widely read within conservative circles in the US, especially by key figures within the Trump administration.